Hall Program

Teacher: Kylie Tait

The Hall program at Moonee Ponds West Primary School has a long tradition of offering P/1/2 students a diverse range of stimulating experiences. During their twice-weekly visits, students are offered a variety of activities that develops their oral language and their social development. These areas are specifically targeted so as children:

• become confident and effective communicators
• develop responsive and active listening skills
• learn through experiencing and experimenting with language
• develop their social skills through working cooperatively with others and by sharing their achievements at the end of each session
• are provided with role models, especially important for children with limited language skills
• mix informally with children from different grades

Tasks provide a wide range of physical, manipulative and creative activities so as to respond to preferred learning styles and intelligences. Students are encourages to try all of the activities during the year, particularly those that aren’t stereotypical.

Japanese

Teacher: Diana Vivian

Konnichiwa!

Japanese is the Language Other Than English (LOTE) that is offered at Moonee Ponds West Primary School. It is taught to Grades 2,3,4,5 and 6. All children from Grades 2 to 6 receive 2 hours tuition per week.

The Japanese program is integrated into the classroom curriculum as much as is practicable. This might mean that a particular aspect of a unit that lends itself to the language is selected to focus on and develop to not only extend the unit but to consolidate and develop new language and language patterns as well. The Grade 2 program is a modified one, mainly activity based with an oral focus. The activities may have a cultural background with a unit influence as appropriate.

Language is made up of different components that are interactive and interdependent – Listening, speaking, reading and writing. All aspects are covered as a whole and at times, depending on the unit and/or the needs of the students independently.

This year we are in Room 14. Please come and visit us whenever you can. If at any time you have any questions, suggestions and time to help please see me. You are most welcome.

Sayoonara!

Physical Education

Teacher: Jan Hayes

At M.P.W. our main aim is to make Physical Education enjoyable for all children and for them to develop a life long appreciation of physical activity.

All children participate in at least one hour P.E. session each week with the PE Specialist covering such areas as fundamental motor skills, ball skills, gymnastics, dance, fitness work, athletics, games and sports. A follow-up lesson is taken by the classroom teacher.

The children in Grade 5-6 (and occasionally some Grade 4's) are involved in interschool sport each week and compete in swimming, cross country, athletics, summer and winter sports. There is a high expectation of good sporting behaviour and an emphasis on working as part of a team.

We also organise two whole school sporting days which currently are a Fun Run and a Jump Rope Day. The aim of these days is to encourage all children to participate in a healthy activity, to create a positive school feeling and to raise money for a charity and our school.

Jan Hayes

Library

Teachers: Michele Birch (Library Technician) & Claudia Stolfo (Librarian)

The MPW Library is an attractive, enjoyable and interesting place where books are valued and we have a wide range of literature. Our aim is to promote and develop a love of literature by encouraging children to attend and borrow on a weekly basis.

The library provides high quality, current appropriate resources to support the learning needs of all students. It is organised to allow easy access and information retrieval for all children and teachers.

The MPW Library is also accessible to children three lunchtimes per week for borrowing and other activities.

To maintain the children’s interest, the library provides a range of displays, visiting authors/illustrators/performers and organises family activity evenings

Creative Arts

Teacher: Sue Phillips

Our program at MPW incorporates Singing, Music, Drama, Dance and the Visual Arts including 3 dimensional works.

Creative Arts aims to involve each child in a range of experiences that foster:

• Independence, perception and imagination
• A positive self-image, resilience, and feelings of worth
• The development of skills and interests, which enhance their individual creativity and self-expression
• Learning through direct experiences whereby children experiment, make decisions, judgements, solve problems, acquire and use information skills
• An awareness of and appreciation of other peoples culture, past and present
• The ability to appreciate, respond and reflect upon the ideas, works and skills of others
• A recognition of multiple intelligences

Time allocation
Each child attends Creative Arts for at least one hour weekly.
The Grade 6 children will have the opportunity undertake a second hour in Creative Arts in the second semester to work on a 'Memories Project' that aims at all children leaving a lasting memento of their time at MPW.

Multi-Age Workshops
In addition to the regular sessions we also offer a some Multi-age workshops. The workshops provide enrichment and extension in the specific areas of the Arts and the opportunity to mix in a broader multi-age setting across all grades.

The Arts Festival
The Arts festival is feature of the school performance program. This is a special time each year for the school community to come together and celebrate the children’s achievements in the Arts at MPW.

MVIMP

Teachers: Various

The Moonee Vale Instrumental Program (MVIMP) is an exciting shared innovative instrumental music program operating between four schools – Ascot Vale PS, Ascot Vale West PS, Moonee Central and Moonee Ponds West PS.

MVIMP provides students from Grades 3 to 6, the opportunity to learn a musical instrument while being supervised by qualified tutors during school time. The student have a weekly half hour lesson in small groups.

The children also have the opportunity to participate in a variety of performances from school events to a combined schools concert in December in front of an audience of 1200. As the children feel confident and have reached certain standard, they are invited to join the School Band, another rewarding and enjoyable experience.

The program involves paying fees of approximately $150 per term, or $75 if the parents have a valid healthcare card.

Music Camp at Lady Northcote
The school through the MVIMP program, also has children involved in a music camp where selected students spend 4 days of intensive music tuition that culminates in a camp concert for parents and special guests on the Thursday evening. This has usually been held at Lady Northcote Camp in Bacchus Marsh.

Learning Support & ESL

Teachers: Amy Divitaris (LS) & Toula Fenech (ESL)

In addition to normal classroom programs Moonee Ponds West PS runs a number of Learning Support Programs throughout the school.

We have an additional Learning Support Teacher (Prep to Grade 6). It is this teacher’s responsibility to work with classroom teachers to support the progress of individual children within each of these teams. This means that each classroom has access to an experienced trained staff member over the course of a normal week.

In addition to the Learning Support role we have an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher who works with funded students for three days per week.

We believe the role of Learning Support Teacher is vital to the success of our school curriculum program. This is why we have 1.6EFT staff, all experienced senior teachers, undertaking this role.